REPORT OF THE FORESTER. 



^ U. S. Departmekt of Agriculture, 



Forest Service, 

 Washington, D. C, July 1, 1905. 

 Sir: T have the honor to transmit herewith a report of the work 

 of the Forest Service for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1905, together 

 with an outline of the plans for the work of the Service for the cur- 

 rent fiscal year. 



EespectfuUy, Gifford Pinchot, 



Forester. 

 Hon. James Wilson, Secretary. 



INTRODUCTION. 



For the Bureau of Forestry, or, as it has now become, the Forest 

 Service, the event of first importance during the past fiscal year was 

 the transfer to its care of the National forest reserves. The act of 

 Congress which accomplished this transfer took effect on February 1, 

 1905. Upon that day, therefore, a Bureau the duties of which had 

 up to that time been confined to the giving of expert supervision and 

 advice, and which had never had charge of one acre of Government 

 land, was given full administrative control of 63,000,000 acres of 

 public forest, with all the business arising from it. 



An administrative system already existed and was transferred with 

 the reserves from the Department of the Interior, together with the 

 appropriation for its support. But the task presented was not merely 

 to coordinate two related organizations, for the transfer wa!s made 

 in order that the National forest reserves might be administered 

 along lines of technical, practical forestry, and so be given their 

 fullest permanent usefulness. It was therefore necessary to merge 

 the former Division of Forestry of the General Land Office in the 

 Bureau of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture. 



The absorption by the Bureau of Forestry, without disturbance 

 and without the need of any radical change, of the entire administra- 

 tive organization and lines of work brought out by the transfer is 

 evidence of the character of its work. Its field investigations and 

 accumulation of forest data had been training its men to effective 

 capacity and had built up its organization on broad, practical, and 

 executive lines. 



During the past few years the Forest Service has pushed its field 

 investigations and gathered facts in every part of the country. The 

 practical utility of these studies is now made evident. . Without the 



199 



